>Is it ethical to use a live Web site as a usability lab?
Our company subscribes to the American Psychological Association's
ethical guidelines in human research (include usability testing and
other data collection methods).
The following guideline (among others) is likely the most applicable in
the case of live Web sites (from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code.html):
6.13 Informed Consent in Research Filming or Recording.
"Psychologists obtain informed consent from research participants prior to
filming or recording them in any form, unless the research involves simply
naturalistic observations in public places and it is not anticipated that
the recording will be used in a manner that could cause personal
identification or harm."
The operative terms here are "public places" and "personal identification".
If you consider a Web site a "public place" where no personal identification
is involved, then its likely that this unobtrusive data collection is
analogous
to field observation in a public park, provided the visitors are never
personally identified. If however, the site is not public, but, for
example, is limited to
certain users who identify themselves by username (for example) then there
may be
a problem in using the data. There are also problems if the user is led to
believe
that privacy is assured while, in fact, they are being observed.
The APA is still working on guidelines for new technology (see the section
telecommunications and the internet), but the two issues of public place and
personal identification need to be answered. The dictum of "doing no harm"
always
applies.
-------------------
Alfred T. Lee, Ph.D., CPE
President, Beta Research, Inc.
http://www.beta-research.com
Tel: 408-353-2665
Fax: 408-353-6725
-------------------
Alfred T. Lee, Ph.D., CPE
President, Beta Research, Inc.
http://www.beta-research.com
Tel: 408-353-2665
Fax: 408-353-6725
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About CHI-WEB: http://www.acm.org/sigchi/web/chi-web.html
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